T-Mobile, Sprint try again: Announce $26B merger agreement
4The $26 billion merger would poise T-Mobile to bring 5G capability to their networks. T-Mo CEO John Legere hopes to sell US regulators on the deal by featuring future technologies.
This merger likely makes Deutsche Telekom the largest mobile telecommunications provider in the world.
I’m curious how this will affect Sprint and T-Mo MVNOs. Between the two, they cover the lions share of prepaid mobile service in North America.
Do you use a MVNO operated by one of these two providers?
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Heh, last week I got an email from tmobile out of the blue asking if I was interested in a job with them. Wonder what this means for that.
@Seeds The CEO, in his conference call announcing the agreement, claims T-Mo will add “thousands of jobs” to support their “forward momentum”.
Let’s see if the 5G rollout is for reals or just a carrot to dangle in front of regulators. As it is, the US is way behind and Huawei and ZTE holds a number of patents already.
@narfcake
With the troubles that Huawei and ZTE have had here, think anything would be different?
@PlacidPenguin Considering the arguments over trade policies, they can say “you aren’t allowed to use them”.
There have been tons of arguments about China not respecting IP of US companies. Now the tables turn.
(I believe Samsung holds the a lot more of the patents.)
@narfcake Deutsche Telekom has been aggressively pursuing 5G tech for quite some time. They’ve already implemented pre-standards commercial 5G networks in Germany, and have committed massive resources to 5G net development. With a massive ready customer base, implementation in US markets seems inevitable?
@ruouttaurmind That won’t be the issue. It’s shit like this that could be an issue, though:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1FR35U
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-safe-us-intelligence-chief-fears
Been on an unlimited plan with Sprint for the last 7 years. I have only renewed my contract once, and have kept the same plan (just with different phones).
Been eyeing this merger attempt for the last few years.
Depending on how things proceed, I may finally be motivated to switch to Fi.
(It probably won’t be long before I get whispers offering Fi discount codes.
)
@PlacidPenguin did I finally beat @medz?
@PlacidPenguin @Seeds Ha! You did.
/giphy fist shake
Yes
@Pavlov Available MVNO options have increased significantly over the years. I haven’t done any research, but would speculate there are nearly as many consumers using MVNO service as those still contracting with the big 4.
Possibly the primary spark for this was FCC’s 2015 ruling compelling providers to unlock devices. Another factor, which is a side effect of the FCC ruling, is the shrinking number of free phone offers, and the now common practice among contract providers of financed monthly payments for new handsets.
The first MVNO I was aware of was Cricket. At that time a Sprint operator. Back then, Cricket had a reputation as the ghetto phone. Now there are dozens of options, and no contract carriers have a vastly improved reputation. Among many, it’s now considered the money wise choice for mobile service.
It will be interesting to see if this latest development affects these providers, and how it will impact the industry in general.
I use Boost Mobile which uses Sprint. I have a Pay As You Go plan which I am “grandfathered” in. I wonder if that will be affected.
I wonder when I’ll get a smartphone and pay a monthly fee.
@JT954 they don’t just use sprint, they are sprint (so is Virgin Mobile usa)
I use T-Mobile’s prepaid service. I get unlimited data and text, but limited minutes, for the price of today’s deal. When I’m not in range of T-Mobile’s network, I get voice and text only from another provider (maybe AT&T?). Does that count as using a prepaid MVNO?
/image mvno